WOMEN, ANDROGYNES AND OTHER MYTHICAL BEASTS
From the union of the retas, or seed, of ‘mother earth’ and ‘father sky’ mentioned in the Rig Veda, to the burning of Kama, the god of desire, by Shiva; from the slaying of a lustful demon by the Goddess, to the fusion—and also blurring—of male and female powers in the image of the Ardhanarishvara, this book is a splendid and multi-layered exploration—as delightful as it is challenging—of gender and sexual identities in Hindu, Buddhist and Tantric mythologies.